Claire tossed and turned on the small stiff excuse for a couch. Her back was sore because of it, aching for a nice mattress. But that was out of the question...Wesker slept there.

Grumbling and rolling onto her back, she also shivered. One blanket...one bed...one super human who leasurly enjoyed both. Claire turned her face to look at Wesker. His back was to her, pale in the filtering moonlight. He had taken his black shirt off after she had tore away from his dominate grasp and sat on the couch only hours earlier.

"You want to sleep there Claire? My offer to share is still open." he had prompted.

Claire herself had scoffed and kept silent, but her failure to move spoke for itself. Wesker crossed his arms over his bare chest, a part of him Claire had done her best to avoid looking at.

"You mistake my offer darling. I have no intentions in frivolous acts with my prisoners. You should know me better."

"I don't know you at all Wesker, everyone who thinks they do is wrong."

He had smiled and tilted his head. It didn't matter who you were, Claire knew if Ada Wong, Rebecca Chambers, hell even Jill Valentine would of found Wesker appealing shirtless and smirking.

Claire! Get a grip! Its Wesker! Remember? He doesn't think anything of you, and he is the reason for all the problems in your life.

She knew he was the last person she should admire like this...

"Your smart dear heart, I lacked seeing that before."

Now he lay there basking in moonlight, the muse of Claire's hate again. And that was good...

"Uncomfortable?"

Claire gasped lightly. She sat up and rubbed her legs, creating warmth.

"How'd you guess? Cold too.."

Wesker turned over, facing her with a very animalistic intent look. Nothing erotic, just fearcsome.

"My propsal stays open. I take one side, you may have the other. I promise you won't even register a presance."

Claire had two sides pulling at her mind. Instinct Claire and Chris influanced Claire. Instinct Claire thought like a illogical person.

Wesker has warmth and comfort, go take some, he promised not to bother you.

The the side that Chris had implanted in her since their parents died clicked on. In the voice of Chris, it warned her 'No, endure the small discomforts! He's the enemy...cannot be trusted...

Claire stood up and pursed her lips, shivering a third time...though not from being chilled.

"Alright...but don't get any ideas and kill me in my sleep."

Claire stayed on alert when approaching. She normally never got too close to Wesker, and when she unfortunatly became so, she normally was in a chokehold. Claire laid down, shaking terribly, besides Wesker and pulled up the blanket. Warmth enveloped her all at once, seeping into her skin like a comfortable disease. Her cheek hit the pillow, her eyes remained on Wesker, who lay on his back, facing her.

"More accommodating then the couch I assume." Claire pulled the blanket up to her chin and nodded. She felt like a foolish child, huddled up like she were frightened. She lost comfort in the fetal position, and moved her legs down. They immediately brushed with Wesker's without a subtle tingle. Claire winced and brought her legs back up fast.

"Sorry" she whispered.

Wesker didn't register any type of surprise of movement. He just looked at her, like a demented guardian who turned on her. That's all he'd been doing when the times worst called for it, looked at her like she were the perfect experiment. The admiration if it could be called that, was similar to that Chris described on his face when he had seen Alexia approach Wesker. Claire felt sick. She propped herself up on one hand, staring back.

"What? Why are you looking at me?" Wesker's looks didn't falter.

"No particular reason dear heart, only admiring your expression."

Claire tilted her head. "Expression? What expression?"

Wesker turned over to his other side, but the rueful smile she knew he wore hung in the air.

"The hatred…"

"Huh?"

"You have so much of it, for me. For the way Chris treats you, childish so that you have to rely on him. You have so much anger flowing through you, I can almost feel it. I saw it so clearly when we had our little scene earlier, if looks could kill me dear heart…"

He paused, leaving Claire in momentary awaiting.

"I'd be nothing more then a bloody heap on the carpet by the doorway."

Claire didn't know what to say. He had read her like a book.

"Why does it matter to you how I feel. You hate things, my brother and myself for one."

Before Claire could blink, Wesker had sat up, holding her by the shoulders. Claire had reacted in shock and put her hands up, landing right on his chest. Until then, she never knew how perfect his chest felt. He felt so human, he looked so…

But his eyes were piercing red, burning hungrily.

"Because Claire, you have so much potential! Don't you understand? You-" He cut short, letting her go, his eyes becoming pale blue again. Claire slowly pulled her hands back.

"Forgive me dear heart, I've already said too much." With not another word, Wesker turned over and returned sleeping. After a moment, Claire settled in and slept beside him, careful not to touch him on accident. Already said too much? What could he mean by that? But of course she already knew before she was done asking herself. She had figured it out. Wesker taking her wasn't about Chris, not anymore. It was about her.

x -- x

Wesker didn't sleep. He never really slept. He lay sided with Claire, knowing the mechanics of her mind were turning. If luck had slipped him, she had already half figured out his motive. This second coming wasn't for Chris's sake, not exactly. For the past month, he had stayed beside Claire, observing her. And what he had found wasn't a frightened little pest he thought of her when he tossed her around before Chris on Antarctica. Not at all. Claire Redfield had proven resilient and rebellious. Through the experience where he had ended up slamming her into a wall, fighting him, she had remained steady. Of course Wesker hadn't extracted one fifth of the pain and torture he possibly could on her. He could break her heart and spirit in a second. But he wouldn't do that..not to her. More specificly, it's the things she had seen, been forced to do or know, and how she used them to fuel a fire in her. Sadness for Steve Burnside for example had grown to anger, anger to rage, and rage to craving. She had gone and looked Alexia Ashford face to face because she knew that she had killed her comrade in cold blood. Chris saw it as reckless behavior, but Wesker saw it as greatness. And soon the pieces will fall into place. Wesker turned over and looked at his prisoner once more. She slept soundly, softly breathing through her lips. Angelic. Wesker went back to his side, and touched the spot on his chest where Claire had, it was the same place the tyrant in Spencer mansion had impaled him.

"Soon dear heart."

x--x

Chris stood before Jill Valentine, Rebecca Chambers and Leon Kennedy. The only other members besides Claire and himself that dare join the Anti Umbrella. He hadn't slept in the days since returning home. He stood in the living room as a leader. But as a failure as well. "I called you briefly here to say this: You don't have to help me get Claire back, no ones obligated. But I need to know who will."